


DRAMA FOR DESSERT

by ThatOneGirlBehindYou



Series: Unfortunately, family is family [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Adopted Children, Family Issues, Family Secrets, Gen, Sibling Rivalry, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 19:30:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18644632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOneGirlBehindYou/pseuds/ThatOneGirlBehindYou
Summary: Hela comes for dinner. Things are tense. Nothing really happens, but this woman is out for blood so is Loki.





	DRAMA FOR DESSERT

They're all fairly tense, but Loki will be _damned_ if he lets it shine through. Instead, he takes to arranging the dining table. And the living room cushions.

And the bathroom towels.

He's fucking justified in being tense, alright?! This woman disowned his family more than a decade ago for some reason even he hasn't been able to pry from his parents, and is now apparently expected to make a comeback into their family nest via the gentle steel grip of their mother.

She will walk in here, and see how fucking amazing the life she wasted is, he's determined.

"Uh... Are you sure you're ok?" Thor asks. He's sipping from a beer while messing up Loki's carefully designed couch arrangement, of course.

"That can better not end up on the coffee table unless you want me to kill you"

Thor looks at him with a worried frown. Loki hates that stupid worried frown, his brother is much better when he's being a lovable idiot rather than unexpectedly insightful.

"Is this your thing again?" 

"Do you want me to punch you in the throat?" Loki barks back because does _not_ have a thing, he may have had a thing when he was like ten but that's over and dealt with, and it has nothing to do with Hela, because his place in this family is his own and he was never a replacement for her, and he is _not at all_ resentful that she threw away the life he fought so hard to stay in after five foster families.

"I would rather you didn't" Thor says, and Loki appreciates him using proper grammar, if only to get back into his good graces. Then, Thor frowns again. "I can't believe you knew I was the middle child all this time and you never told me"

"You're such an idiot" Loki plops down on the couch next to him "give me that beer"

\-----

"Whatever she may or may not have done" Frigga starts again with a pointed look at her husband "Is not important, and we shouldn't bring it up. She's back now, and that's all I care about. We're all a family, and the past doesn't matter"

"Love..."

"Do not push my daughter away Odin. Not again" Frigga asks with a firm gleam in her eyes that make it clear this is more a warning than a request.

For a moment it looks like Odin is going to keep arguing, but the moment is broken by the roaring of a motorcycle engine outside. Frigga smiles. Loki can see the strain at the edges of her lips, and he knows he's not the only one on edge for this visit.

Hela's riding a sleek bike, black with green accents and a sidecar hitched to the side with a passenger in it.

"Oh my gosh" he hears Thor mutter by his side. He has to agree, as Hela unbuckles the helmet and safety harness to allow the biggest dog he's ever seen into their yard. The beast takes a few steps into Odin's carefully mowed lawn and gives them all unimpressed stares until Hela finishes stashing the helmets in the bike's saddles, after which it looks up to her with puppy-ish adoration and gives it's tail a few wags.

"Wow. The whole welcome committee" says Hela. She manages to look just as unimpressed as the dog somehow. "This is Fenrir. I assume she's welcome too?" She asks then. Her lips curve slightly into a smile and Loki  has applied the same subtle taunt enough times before that he's able to recognize that Hela's trying to get under Odin's skin before even setting foot into the house and honestly?

Loki's all about giving Odin hell. Thor can be the golden kid all he wants, Loki finds a special sort of joy in going against his father with everything he can muster only to turn around the next second and moving the world for his mother.

However, this is only ok because Odin is _his_ father. Hela hadn't argued her father's side whenever Thor was feeling rebellious and reckless. She hadn't gone along with all his harebrained father-son bonding activities that usually ended with all three of them storming in different directions after a shouting match, and she certainly hadn't driven him to the ER in less than seven minutes while he had a heart attack in the backseat, so as far as he's concerned she has _no_ business-

"Can I pet her?" Loki turns at the sound of Thor's voice and well, he should've expected it. It does make him smile a little that Hela seems to have no idea what to make of this either.

"Uh. Sure? Try" is all she says, and then of course Thor Friend of All Things is walking across the lawn and offering a large hand to the dog.

Loki spares his parents a glance. Odin looks apprehensive and even Frigga seems a bit nervous. Loki slips his hand into his pocket to grab his phone, in case he has to inform a helpful 911 dispatcher that his brother got his hand ripped off by a dog of unknown wolf percentage.

"Hey girl" Thor coos. His ability to sound like a child despite being the size of a small grizzly is something Loki has always been puzzled by. "Are you a good girl? I'm your uncle Thor"

Hela's face twitches into a rictus of indignation at the declaration, but  then... Then the dog is giving Thor's hand a push with its nose, and getting its front half on the ground in the universal dog sign of "playtime mode initiated", and Hela's eyebrows arch in surprise. 

Her eyes meet Loki's, and for all the animosity already brewing between them, he gives a sympathetic shrug at her open confusion. Being Thor's sibling is always a bit disconcerting.

\---

"The food is great mom" Hela says. It's carefully aimed so as to not include anything or anyone else in the compliment in any way, Loki realizes.

For his part, he hasn't tried much of what's on his plate. He feels on edge, watching the woman's interactions with everyone, watching his father for any alarming sign, just... Watching. He's starting to believe maybe Thor was right and this _is_ his thing again.

The dog of course has her own plate, which Frigga loaded with way too generous a portion of chicken and peas, and she's gobbling away in a corner of the dining room.

"Thank you sweetie" Frigga smiles "I remember you were very fond of it"

"So sis" Thor pipes in. The nickname sounds experimental in his voice, and Loki instantly knows two things.

One: he hates it, and his stomach is burning in repulsion at the thought of this imbecile referring to someone other than him as his sibling.

Two: Hela hates it just as much as he does, and he's going to make sure Thor sticks with it for eternity if need be.

"... Yes?" Hela asks after a moment, in the same tone of voice one uses to humor a kid that's got you fed up just by existing but you can't get rid of because it's socially unacceptable to punch kids.

"Were you in town for the day when dad had his incident or...?" God bless him, he actually sounds _interested_ in the answer.

"I was in the next city over for work" Hela starts slowly "then mom texted me"

Odin's fork makes a loud sound when he drops it and it hits the plate.

"You called her?!" He asks. His face looks betrayed rather than angry, which Loki finds terribly intriguing. 

"She's your only daughter Odin" Frigga says without sparing him a glance "and for all we knew you could've died there. Thought you might appreciate a chance to fix things"

"I just wanted to check he was actually dead" Hela shrugs. Loki's gaze snaps to his mother, but she doesn't even seem to register her callousness. What the hell? "But if mom wants me to stick around for a while I will" 

The 'especially if it bothers you' aimed to Odin is almost explicit with the way she smirks at him.

"Work. What is it that you do again?" Loki finally brings himself to speak. This woman is dominating the conversation in his turf, and while he can't be like Thor and make her uncomfortable with undeserved affection, he won't be ignored.

Hela's green eyes -they actually look a lot alike, he realizes, and has a brief thought that his child self would've found that very reassuring, to not look so different from the entirety of his new family- sparkle with amusement as she looks over at him with a smile.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" She says

Loki feels his jaw twitch. "That's usually why one asks things, yes" he looks down at his full plate, only barely seeing her smile turn into a smirk, before continuing "though I can understand that you may not be used to people actually giving you attention, based on your whole act and the daddy issu-"

"Loki" Frigga doesn't quite slam her cup on the table, but she's close. "You haven't even touched your food. Are you ok?"

Loki turns to look at her and has to restrain a sigh, because she's wearing her 'I expected better from you' face. Honestly, Loki's resistance to it has gone steadily up with the years as his own expectations of himself go down, but sometimes it catches him off guard.

"I'm just not too hungry" he assures her. Hela still looks like she bit into a lemon so he marks it as a win in the imaginary tally he's _definitely_ not keeping. "I'll take some home though"

The meal progresses more smoothly after that, with Thor sneaking the dog small bites of food and his mother and Hela making brief but polite -and stiff, much to Loki's delight- conversation.

"I'll bring dessert" Frigga announces after they're all mostly done eating. "Thor sweetie, come give me a hand"

The two of them step into the kitchen, and the mood at the table changes like someone flipped a switch.

"Listen here Hela" Odin starts in an angry mutter "I don't know what you're here for-"

"Then you must be going deaf or dumber, because I made it very clear I only wanted to see you in a box" Hela interrupts. Loki looks at his father out the corner of his eye but he seems stable, if suitably pissed off.

"But I won't tolerate you making trouble for my family" he continues like Hela had never spoken "Your mother missed you, but she's seen you already. You're going to stay away from us, understood?"

Hela chuckles. Loki's pretty sure he sounds like that when he wants to be nasty. He wonders what other similarities he had with his parents' firstborn daughter, and his _thing_ flares up again. This is going to be a drinks at home night, he can tell.

"Old man, you couldn't force me to do shit when you were at your peak. Don't try now, you'll just embarrass yourself"

Odin frowns "I'll call the police Hela"

"No you won't" Hela's lips curl into a smirk "you're too scared, and too dirty by far"

"That's rich, coming from you"

"Then do it, right now. Come on, get me out of your life for good" she goads, and Odin's face goes an alarming shade of red "thought so" she adds after a few minutes

"He may not do it. But I wouldn't mind" Loki speaks then, and Hela's eyes snap to him in an instant.

"You don't even know who you're defending you little shit" she snarls "dig that nose a little deeper before you go flinging threats"

Loki bristles, but Thor is back with a tray of tiramisu, and his mother walks in just a second after him with plates and a spatula, and even though the three of them are out for blood, everyone knows better than to fight over dessert.

\---

"Hela dear, would you mind dropping your brother off at his apartment?" Frigga asks amiably as Hela gathers her jacket and helmet. 

Thor has long since left for drinks with Brunhilde, Sif and Volstagg, and Loki's beginning to regret not having joined them. 

"That's ok mom, I'll just call a cab" Loki says. From the way Hela's shoulders are frozen in place too, he's willing to bet he's not the only one desperate to avoid this. "I don't want to impose"

"Nonsense" Frigga takes a sip of her mug of tea. Her eyes meet Loki's, and he's reminded that for all that his mother is overflowing with kindness and overall wellness, she's also _cunning_ and confident in her own authority. "Your sister is actually staying quite close to your place dear"

"You are?" Loki can't help but ask, arching an eyebrow. Hela's looking back at him with the barely disguised disbelief he feels himself. 

"Believe me, I had no idea" she says dryly, before turning to smile at their mother "but I'll take him sure, I have an extra helmet in the saddlebags"

"Lovely" Loki mumbles under his breath. He smiles as well "thanks mom, I'll see you later. Bye dad"

"Text when you get home" Odin grunts. Loki would chuckle except he wouldn't put it past this woman to just push him off the bike on the highway.

\---

"You can let go of me now, and if you don't I'll throw you off myself" Hela says literally a second after killing the bike's engine.

"I'm sorry. I usually travel with more luxury than an oversized bicycle" Loki rips his hands off her hips anyways, taking the helmet off. "Thanks for the ride" he throws it her way. He also gives Fenrir a small pat, because he's not _heartless_

"Just because mom asked" she replies. Her eyes drift up at the elegant apartment building, an eyebrow raised "do you actually make enough money writing shitty plays to live here?"

Loki doesn't even ask how she knows what his line of work is, merely turning to look over his shoulder while he taps the fob to the panel by the front door "Wouldn't you like to know?"


End file.
